 | The recognition that the central Puget Sound region has significant mobility problems that need to be addressed collectively by the citizens of the region. |
| The direct access ramps to make it easier and safer for transit and carpools to reach and use the HOV Expressway by eliminating the need to weave through several lanes of traffic. |
| The twenty new regional express bus routes that take advantage of the improved speed and reliability of the HOV Expressway System. (We understand that some routes were eliminated from earlier drafts of the Plan to pay for rail construction.) |
| Overall system improvements like new transit centers, park and ride lots, and a unified fare structure. The Central Puget Sound Fare Integration Project was underway well before RTA was presented to voters. |
| The care with which RTA planners have estimated ridership on bus and train routes, so that we can rely on their figures when we critique the Plan. |
| That the overall Plan has an immeasurably small impact on levels of vehicle traffic, congestion, and related environmental pollution. |
| The 70 percent of the Plan budget that goes for ineffective, unnecessary rail service that would carry very few people who couldn't be (and aren’t already being) served equally well by bus service. |
| The proposal to dig a new train tunnel under the Ship Canal and Capitol Hill at a cost of $800,000,000 that will be paid for largely by the residents of King County. |
| That the Plan provides no funding for additional HOV lanes and assumes the State legislature will find the approximately $1.5 billion needed for completion of a seamless HOV system. |
| That the Plan provides no funding for the incentives, such as subsidized bus passes, that are needed to shift commuters from cars to transit. |
| That the RTA Plan soaks up too much tax money for what it provides overall and will starve other public transportation and non-transportation needs. |
| That the chief local tax source used to fund the Plan, the retail sales tax, would push that tax to nearly the highest level in the nation, thereby exacerbating an already highly regressive tax system. |